“We’ve already ruled out the cash bonuses for the boards of the banks who’ve received government help, and the starting point has got to be that City bankers, whose decisions led to massive losses and helped cause the credit crunch, should not be getting any bonuses this year, period,” she said.

“There’s an issue about we’ve got to deal with this year’s bonuses but … it’s not just about the banks that have received funding from the government, there’s also this wider issue about the way in which the bonus culture seems to have increased the risks that the banks were taking across the board.”